Emerging trends · 2022–present
Value Engineering
The current wave of the research. In formation, drawn from interviews and fieldwork across Europe. Co-creation, nested inside a broader response to new drivers of change.
The research restarted in 2022 after the disruptions of COVID. By then a new set of drivers had emerged and were compounding: sustainability pressure, geopolitical instability, tightening regulation, the technological capacity to measure environmental and social impact, and a financial system that had begun pricing in the kinds of risk it once ignored.
The first wave of the research had identified co-creation as the response to globalisation and the collapse of information asymmetry. That response remains foundational. But it is no longer sufficient on its own — not because co-creation is wrong, but because what suppliers must now co-create with their customers has become structurally more complex. The current wave proposes Value Engineering as the broader response: a discipline for designing, selling, and proving value when value itself has become multi-dimensional.
This work is in formation. The shape and language are being developed through ongoing interviews and workshops. What is published here is what the research has produced so far.
1. The framework
Six dimensions of customer value
Value is two questions, asked in parallel across multiple dimensions: What’s in it for me? and What do I have to sacrifice? Each dimension contains both a potential gain and a potential cost, and every dimension left unmapped is a risk left unmanaged.
| Dimension | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| 1. ROI / Economic | Will this make or save money? |
| 2. Risk & Resilience | Does this protect operations against shocks? |
| 3. Life-Cycle & Circular | Does it reduce waste, downtime, or disposal costs? |
| 4. Strategic | Does this fit where we are going as a business? |
| 5. People | Will people actually use it? Does it make work easier? |
| 6. Planet & Societal | Does this reduce harm to society or the environment? |
Not all dimensions are activated in every deal. The framework is a diagnostic, not a checklist. The skill is to identify which dimensions genuinely matter to this buyer, at this moment, for this decision.
2. The discipline
Value Engineering — three pillars
Value Engineering is what suppliers do when value has become multi-dimensional and procurement is still one-dimensional. It is broader than selling because it answers what happens before, during, and after the deal. Each pillar is a separate capability, with its own tools, methods, and accountability.
Pillar 1 — Design
Engineer the proposition. Redesign the offering across the six dimensions; build evidence and traceability into the product, not retrofitted as marketing claims. The proposition itself must support the conversation the buyer now needs to have.
Pillar 2 — Sell
Articulate value across the activated dimensions. Run the Systemic Value Selling four-stage method to co-create the Layered Business Case with the customer’s buying coalition.
Pillar 3 — Capture
Deploy and prove value materialises. Run measurement and expansion post-sale. Without active capture, value identified during the sale does not show up at the customer — and the supplier loses the next deal because the first one was never proven.
3. The method
Systemic Value Selling — four stages
Systemic Value Selling is Pillar 2 in operational form. The selling work runs across four sequential stages — each one co-creative, each one feeding the next.
- Discover. Surface value leaks across all dimensions; map what each stakeholder gains and sacrifices; identify which costs and risks are still hidden.
- Design. Co-design the solution and value proposition jointly with the customer, shaped by the diagnostic before quantification begins.
- Justify. Co-author the Layered Business Case: a named layer per activated dimension, with FAB evidence, a stakeholder owner, and a risk-of-inaction argument.
- Align. Bring stakeholders not in the diagnostic on board. Tailor the sub-message per stakeholder to the dimensions they weight most heavily. The Layered Business Case structures all of them as one defensible decision.
The co-creation logic of the first wave runs through every stage. What has changed is the structural device — the Layered Business Case — that the co-creation now produces.
A note on risk
The word risk does double duty in the framework. Risk & Resilience (Dimension 2) refers specifically to operational risk — supply-chain disruption, vendor lock-in, regulatory compliance failures. It is one of the six dimensions.
There is a second kind of risk that is not in the framework: strategic risk — the integrated risk produced by leaving any of the six dimensions unmapped. Strategic risk is not a dimension; it is the field. Every cost a customer cannot measure today is a strategic risk they will have to manage tomorrow.
The full argument
From Value Selling to Value Engineering
The working paper that the framework, the discipline, and the method are drawn from. Written by Régis Lemmens and Javier Marcos, May 2026. A companion slide deck is also available for those wishing to present the framework to colleagues or in teaching contexts.
Working paper · May 2026 · updated as the research develops
Cases from this wave
Kaneka, ING, Circl, AZ Delta, and others. Each case applies the multi-dimensional framework to a real customer situation. Some are written up in field-note form on the articles page; others are documented as case studies.
Future Of Selling 